Downsizing: Managing redundancy and restructuring

Abstract

Employee downsizing is a term used widely to describe processes that result in the elimination of jobs from an organization and that are often accompanied by the dismissal of the job incumbents. A typical definition is ‘a planned set of organizational policies and practices aimed at workforce reduction with the goal of improving firm performance’ (Datta et al. 2010: 282). Downsizing is often treated as synonymous with terms such as redundancy or layoff but, while frequently including those processes, it can be achieved through a wide variety of alternative or accompanying restructuring activities including outsourcing, redeployment, natural wastage, recruitment freezes, short-time working, sabbaticals and pay freezes or cuts (CIPD 2015).